Green Dragon co-founder Lolo Lancaster

Lots of action going on in the local beer bottling scene. In case you haven’t noticed, Hopworks Urban Brewery has been selling select bombers (that’s 22-ouncers for those of who haven’t heard) of their IPA, Seven Grain Stout, DOA, and Crosstown Pale Ale. The brightly colored orange, yellow, and red bottles are hard to miss on the shelves of select craft beer dispensaries. On Monday night, Hopwork brewers were on hand at Belmont Station for a meet the brewer event to kickoff these snazzy/gaudy new eye catchers. Brewers Christian Ettinger and Ben Love served up tastes of their bottled beauts on draft as well as their Bourbon Barrel Aged Noggin’ Floggin’ Barleywine and a Cask Conditioned IPA.

Mike Weksler of Green Bottling sent us some pictures of the latest mobile bottling project at Bend’s Silver Moon Brewing. Green Dragon co-founder and masterbrewer Lolo Lancaster was on hand alongside the Moon’s head brewer Tyler Reichert to bottle up more of their Hop KNOB IPA in addition to a seasonal High Plains Heffe. Look for the crisp Bavarian-style wheat beer in stores this week.

Green Bottling is also pleased to be the bottlers who put Bend Brewing’s Elk Lake IPA. Here’s what a press release from Bend says:

For the first time ever, lovers of Bend Brewing Co.’s Elk Lake IPA can take 22 ounce bottles of the extremely popular ale home.
The inaugural run of IPA in bottles will sell for only $5 per bottle and will be available only at the Bend Brewing Co. brewpub beginning May 28. First come, first served! Don’t miss the opportunity to send a bottle back home for Father’s Day, stash it in your cooler for a summer camping trip, or stockpile for the long winter to follow.
Elk Lake IPA is a true Northwest-style IPA. Its exceptional aroma is reminiscent of citrus and pine balanced with a distinct underlying bitterness. Specifications: IBUs 64 and ABV 6.15%.

Full Sail LTD 03 is released ifrom the Hood.  Hood River, that is. The season lager series will feature what the company says the Pilsner-style beer is “pale golden in color, features a spicy floral hop aroma, a malty medium body, and a smooth thirst-quenching finish.”  A press release from Full Sail’s Sandra Evens adds:

LTD 03 registers “Pale” on the “Malt-O-Meter” that is featured on the six packs. Beer aficionados, or the aspiring ones, will enjoy the bottom of the six-pack that features an easy-to-read chart of “Today’s Recipe,” including Sterling hops, 2 row pale malt, plato (14 degrees), I.B.U. (35), alcohol by volume (5.6) and any special ingredients. LTD 03 will be available in six-packs and draught and will be available June through September.

LTD 03 has just been bottled and will be out on shelves throughout the Pacific Northwest this month.

The weather outside is delightful and the Deschutes has just put their Twilight Ale to bottles for summer sessioning. The straw-colored light ale (5.0% ABV) with a nicely lil punch of hops aroma from the addition of whole flower Cascade, Amarillo and Tettnangs (35 I.B.U.) hit shelves on Memorial Day.

Deschutes brewer John Abraham has many beers and of this one he says, “The malts of Twilight Ale are at once offset and complemented by citrus and floral aromas that come from the whole flower hops. The overall result is a crisp, effervescent, highly drinkable ale. I consider it the perfect hot weather quencher.”

Suggested food pairings: The brewery team recommends pairing Twilight with picnic classics such as barbecued ribs, and salads with lemon and dill.

Have a new beer coming out and want us to try it?  Send a bottle, six pack, or case (this is preferred) to us today!

Posted under Oregon beer, beer news, beer releases

Our man Mike Weksler of Oregon’s premier bottling agency, Green Bottling, has just informed us that he and his partner Jack have just bottled up 300 cases of Laurelwood‘s Hop Monkey IPA. You may have already noticed it on shelves around town and pouring at key craft brew dispensaries. According to Laurelwood’s head brewer Chad Kennedy, “Hop Monkey IPA is now available in bottles where good beer is sold throughout Oregon and SW Washington. You can also get Organic Free Range Red and Organic Portland Roast Espresso Stout bottles at our pubs.” The India Pale Ale will become the brewery’s first year-round brand since 2007 and the first since the company opened their latest brewpub on NE 51st and Sandy Boulevard in Portland.

Posted under Oregon beer, beer releases

SOB Woodshed Red

“Jack and I’ve been down in Medford for a few days of bottling. Yesterday and today at Southern Oregon Brewing. We’ve bottles the Gold and Pale, and today we’re bottling the Porter and the Woodshed Red.

The porter is a Baltic style (very good one at that). And the Woodshed Red is a seriously hoppy red.

I highly recommend both the porter and the red. I’ll bring you back some samples.”

-Mike Weksler of Green Bottling

Posted under Oregon beer, beer releases

With the help of Green Bottling, Oregon’s premier mobile bottling outfit, Laurelwood Public House and Brewery has bottled 480 cases of a big, robust organic espresso stout in 22-ounce bottles.

Portland Roast Espresso Stout

Here’s a commercial description of the beer:

Organic Portland Roast Espresso Stout is a collaboration between the Laurelwood brewery and Portland Roasting. The beer features a blend of Ethiopian and Sumatran coffees specially selected by the Head Brewer at Laurelwood. The Organic and farm friendly coffees blend nicely with their smooth and mellow organic stout. The roasted character of the ale is nicely complimented by the coffee flavor and aroma.

Posted under beer releases

Here’s more on the new BridgePort Fallen Friar Abbey Ale.

Karl Ockert

BridgePort, with the help of Green Bottling, bottled more than 600 cases of their latest Big Beer.  The Series has expanded Oregon’s Oldest Craft Brewery’s appeal by adding

Mike Weksler

inventiveness and innovation to their repertoire.  This time around, the beer, as we previously mentioned, is the Fallen Friar Belgian Abbey Ale.  The Friar is a 8.2% ABV Belgian Tripel aged with 35% in oak wine barrels.  After sharing a 22 ounce bottle of the beer with BridgePort brewmaster Karl Ockert and Green Bottling’s Mike Wexler, it was discovered by this beer lover that the beer is quite soft for the style.  Not as carbonic as many Belgian golden strong ales such as Duvell or Lucifer, the Fallen Friar held a soft pillowy white head atop a fruity and floral Hallertau-laced body.  Employing the same yeast strain as BridgePort’s first Belgian-styled release, the Supris, Fallen Friar masks its bold alcohol content superbly.  Among the brewery’s Big Beer Series from 2008 was the other Belgian-styled brew, Stumptown Tart.  This third Belgian is really something to experience.  You can get your hands on a bottle during the release party coming up on February 19 at the NW Portland location.  Visit www.bridgeportbrew.com for more details.

Posted under beer releases, beer reviews

BridgePort Fallen Friar Abbey Ale

Today BridgePort Brewing in conjunction with Green Bottling is filling 22-ounce bottles with a new Belgian brew.  In an email just received from Kendall at R-West, BridgePort’s marketing team, the beer is an Abbey-style brew.  We’re still not sure what kind of Abbey Brew it is, but we are definitely psyched to get our paws on this one. The beer is named Fallen Friar and will be officially released on February 19, 2009.  BridgePort is planning a release party for the brew and informed us that details will follow.  The beer is the latest in the brewery’s Big Beer series that has formerly featured a bourbon barrel aged Old Knucklehead barleywine, a  Belgian marionberry brew called Stumptown Tart, and the Raven Mad Imperial Porter.  Above is a picture taken by Green Bottling‘s Mike Weksler, who informed us that 650 cases of Fallen Friar will be bottled.

Posted under beer releases

We just heard from Mike Weksler at Green Bottling, Portland’s only mobile bottling service, and he gave us a report that the Roots Epic Ale has just been bottled and is ready for its release on Thursday December18.  Said Weksler on Tuesday “…We bottled 40 cases of Roots Epic earlier today.  It will only be for sale at Roots. We also bottled the IPA and Red, but that really isn’t news.”

Says Roots owner Craig Nicholls “Each year, we have a local artist design a new label that’s unique to this beer and Roots Organic Brewing Co. We hand Bottle and label each beer. The limited edition Magnums, can only be purchased at Roots Organic Brewing Company and a limited few beer specialty stores around the state. If you want one you need to be quick, as these have become a beer collectors top purchase over the years and there usually gone within the first week of it’s release!”

THE PROCESS
Nicholls adds “We hand smoke 55 pounds of Munich malt over cherrywood. We have built a special stainless perforated “contraption” that we put the malts in to smoke. We then have to hand turn (3 pounds at a time) the malts every 10 to 15 minutes. This goes on for up to a week, about 4 hours a day! The Cherrywood been soaked in 18-year-old Glenlivet, Cognac, Rum and Northwest cherries.”

THE OUTCOME
“Delicate, Smokey, Toffee & Cherry notes, that float ever so gently on both, the pallet & nose and give it a warm bittersweet finish. Over 1,700 lb’s of malt & 65 lb’s of hops makes this a truly “EPIC ALE” served only in 8.5 ounce glass. IBU 80, 14% ABV.”

Posted under beer releases